Why is St. Joseph in Your Yard Upside Down?

Here's a tidbit for you. Apparently, in the murky past, nuns used to bury a wee St. Joseph in hopes of getting more land for convents. Nowadays, it's said that if you bury your own wee statue of St. Joseph upside down near your For Sale sign or the front door, your house will sell faster. Okay, let's leave that alone for a second.

Another tidbit: I read a couple of days ago that someone in Germany (I think) did a study on the effect of making the sign of the cross over water with bacteria in it. The prayers and signs were made by believers and non-believers alike, and in all cases, the bacteria was drastically reduced in the water. Here's the main point--everyone was aware of the purpose of the experiment: to reduce the amount of bacteria in the water. Whether the technicians were Christian or not had no bearing on the outcome. It was the action, not the belief, that created change.

What do these two little bits of information have in common? a)Doing something with intent can get you what you want, and b)Even going through the motions--just the act--is powerful enough to get results.

What do I take away from this in regard to selling a house? I don't think the power is in the statue of St. Joseph. It's in the belief that it will help you sell. If you believe burying a hickory nut will help you sell, and you follow through and bury that nut, it will, indeed, help you sell. Maybe you purchased a special memento to commemorate the purchase of your home. Maybe that could be your St. Joseph.

And if a family member isn't necessarily completely on board with the whole intention-driven selling plan, that's okay, too. Have them go through the motions. Either way, as demonstrated in the sign of the cross experiments, you'll get positive results.

Do I have any science to back up any of these claims? Not a lick. What I do have is the abiding belief that everything is energy and can be directly effected through words and intention. The energy doesn't care if you believe the words (although you might).

I know you can sell that house! For more information, and to get free sample chapters of the ebook I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market, please visit. I CAN Sell This House.

An Attitude of Thanksgiving

Wow--I have been away for a week, and it's good to get back. I thought that, since we in the US have just celebrated Thanksgiving and we're heading on into other celebrations of thanksgiving--Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, etc, that I should take a minute to list what I was thankful for during our selling process. Perhaps you can take the lesson and approach your selling process with a spirit of thanksgiving, as well.

1. I am thankful that the house is staged.
2. I am thankful to the wonderful people I hired to get the house in great shape.
   
3. I am thankful that the house is clean and in good repair.
4. I am thankful that I've emotionally detached from the house.
5. I am thankful that I have a great Realtor.
6. I am thankful for my partner and husband and all his help in keeping the stage set.
7. I am thankful for the support of my friends.
8. I am thankful for the Internet and how it helps me market the house.
9. I am thankful that gas prices are lower and folks are willing to drive around and look at houses again.
10. I am thankful that our buyers found their new home in our old house.

Approaching the sale with an attitude of thanksgiving leaves your heart open to search for your new home even as you sell the old house. It also leaves you open to welcome new owners. When you are filled with a spirit of Thanksgiving, it's impossible to feel negative. So, while selling is stressful, and trying to have a joyous holiday season while selling sounds impossible, approach everything you do to sell with a spirit of hope and thanksgiving. Best to you during the holiday season. I know you can sell!

For more information and for a free sample of my eBook, I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market, please visit my site.

My Selling A House To Do List

I lots of time just ramble on about metaphysical issues when it comes to selling, but at the end of the day, the actions are just as important as the intentions. It's the convergence of the two--your intentions make your actions more focused, and your actions give your intentions immediate physical manifestation.

But today, I'll focus on the actions. Here's an example of a really good selling To Do list.

1. Research Realtors. Find three you like and interview them at the house. Ask all of them the same questions. (a good list of questions)
2. Stand back and take an objective look at every inch of the house. Make a list: what gets fixed; what gets spruced up; what gets cleaned. Set a budget and prioritize within that budget.
3. Choose ONE purpose for each room in the house (and out in the yard) for staging. Inventory everything in each room/yard. Get rid of anything that a)doesn't support the room's purpose, b)is personally identifiable, c)is too "niche-y." You're going for comfortable but generic. Think "room display at Bed Bath and Beyond."
4. Store, sell, give away or donate everything that is a)clutter, b)not seasonal--nobody wants to see your Snowshoes in June, unless you're in Australia), c)personally identifiable or d)trash.
5. Clean everything. Dust everything. Sweep everything. Make sure the lightbulbs all work.
6. Get a new welcome mat and a not-obnoxious wreath for the door. Make the entryway as spacious-feeling and welcoming as possible. After all, everyone who steps over that threshold is potentially stepping into their new home.
7. Do your research and price your house for the market. Only use comps in your own neighborhood, so you're comparing apples to apples.
8. List.

Up next--the marketing, but that's for another day.

For more information, please visit I CAN Sell This House to request a free sample of my ebook I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market.

I Know: A Sun Room Will Help Us Sell!

People, don't add a sun room just so you can sell the house. Seriously. If you were investing in your home and adding more livable space for you to enjoy, that would be one thing. But you're selling, and every cent you spend on "upgrades" is one cent less in profit. Now is the time to be as miserly as possible. Think minimum outlay for maximum benefit. In almost all cases, if you are weighing two options, choose the one that gives you the biggest bang for your buck.

New cabinets vs. refacing? Get out that belt sander. New carpet vs. deep cleaning? Call Stanley Steemer. Granite vs. laminate? If you and your Realtor have decided that new countertops are necessary, go with the laminate. The reality is that your buyers will be able to buy for less than they had budgeted for a year or two ago. If they want granite, unless all the other kitchens in the neighborhood have granite countertops, they can do it themselves.

Try inexpensive "spruce ups." Add a chair rail and paint the wall below a slightly darker shade. Make sure that none of the window treatments are dusty, dirty or broken (goodbye ugly metal mini blinds that the dog mangled seven years ago). Add some beadboard in the bathroom, kitchen or breakfast nook. Polish your wooden floors. There are plenty of things that you can do to make your house stand out and call its new owners without breaking the bank. Change out your drawer pulls. Pressure wash the driveway. Stain the deck. Set a "spruce up" budget of no more than 1-2% of your asking price and stick to it.

My Number One Tip for Selling A House

Selling a house is a big deal. In some markets, it's relatively easy to sell. In others, it can be challenging. But, whether you're selling in a great market or a stagnant market, selling is always a big deal. I heard a story once about a lady who just "decided one day" to sell her house FSBO, and as she was walking back to the house to put away the hammer after pounding her sign into the ground, a guy (maybe it was Richard Gere) pulled up to the curb and asked her if she was serious about selling. She said yes, and the deal was done. That, my friends, is the exception that proves the rule. It takes focus and work to sell a house.

If you've been reading some of these posts, or if you have purchased a copy of I CAN Sell This House (and please write me and tell me about your experience if you have), you know that I focus a lot on intentions. My number one tip for selling a house is to do at least one task every day with the express intent of selling the house. Whether it's staging-related: cleaning the windows, fluffing pillows, arranging some cut flowers or marketing related: placing ads, posting fliers, posting to forums, do that task with the intention that that act will help to draw your buyers closer. You can even say this to yourself--or out loud, if you don't feel too weird about it. "I am fluffing these pillows to help attract our buyers," alone might sound silly, but it is one breadcrumb. All the breadcrumbs you sow become the path that leads your buyers home.

Worries: Just as Powerful as Intentions

I read a very compelling bit of philosophy a few weeks ago. I cannot remember the source right now, but this man's theory took the Law of Attraction to a whole new level. What he asserts is that an Armageddon (of sorts, at least) will occur, not necessarily because it is foretold in The Bible, but because so many people all over the world expect it to. In other words, we will bring about our own destruction because we are expecting it, worrying about it, and wondering not if, but when it will happen. The end of the world is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It's a very interesting (albeit disturbing theory), and it seems to logically follow that if you can attract what you want, you can also attract what you don't want. And now to the part about how all of this relates to selling your house. No matter how good your intentions to act with intent and be positive that your buyer is out there and that you are doing everything in your power to attract them, all of us have moments of doubt and worry. "We could be stuck in this house with no way out." "We might have to show this house 100 times before we find our buyers." Not good thoughts to have, especially if we take for truth that to a large extent our intentions bring about our reality. Try and focus on what you want to have happen, not on the fear of what might happen.

Because we are all human, it is natural to have some fears. When this happens to you, and it might, do not fight the thoughts. Rather, try and complete those worrisome thoughts with a positive outcome. Try to turn the worries into intentions for your sale. "We could be stuck in this house with no way out, but we won't be because everything we are doing is drawing our buyer to us." "We might have to show this house 100 times before we find our buyers, but every showing we have brings our buyers closer." Don't fight the negative thoughts. Just add to them and turn them into positive intentions to sell that house.

The Judicious Use of Live Plants

Every staging book will tell you to use plants--put them in the corners, on windowsills, etc. And they're right. You should use plants when you're staging. I don't think that the staging books talk enough about why you should use plants. Remember, a stage is a generic and minimal environment designed specifically so potential buyers can project their lives onto it. But, because it is so minimal, you run the risk of having the space look too Spartan.

Plants have a relatively small footprint, but they can also spread out to fill an otherwise bare corner. Rather than putting a small table with a footprint of 2 1/2 feet, squared in an empty corner, place a large plant in the same corner. You'll save about 1 1/2 square feet of floor space, and the plant will probably be taller than the small table, so it will fill the space more effectively.

Most furniture is all about straight lines, angles and corners. Bringing in a natural element can help to break up those lines and warm up the entire space. There are no straight lines in nature, so use nature to your advantage. Plants also provide a live element in what can otherwise feel like a fairly sterile space. Placing a couple of attractive potted plants on side or end tables or on a mantle can make a space feel more friendly. It is perfectly fine to use a couple of silk plants, especially in rooms that don't get any natural light, but try and stick with live plants in most of the spaces.

And to carry through the theme of intention, explain to the plants that their job is to help attract new owners. Studies have shown that plants grow stronger and more quickly when spoken to or when played music, so you might as well get them on your side when it comes to staging, as well!

For information on I CAN Sell This House, click here.

How to Live on a Stage

We have already established a difference between decorating a home to live in and staging a house to sell. In staging, there will likely be a lot less "stuff" around than in decorating. Multi-purpose rooms will show as single-purpose rooms. Personal identifying items and objects are gone, and the decor reads "generic." How are you supposed to live in a place like that?

First, remember that, though it might be inconvenient, you are living on the stage with the intent to attract your buyers to the house. Know that the stage is a temporary situation. As a matter of fact, taking into account the Law of Attraction, the more you tell yourself that it's temporary, the more temporary it's likely to be.

Also remember that, more than just living on the stage, you need to maintain the stage. That means everything has a place, and everything must be in its place. Picture every item on the stage with an imaginary footprint line drawn around it. If you move something, put it back in the outlines. If you unfold a towel, fold it back. If you use the coffee maker, clean it immediately and put it where it back on its footprint.

Here's one trick that I used to make life on a stage a bit easier. I put out "show towels." Nice, fluffy, beautifully presented towels arranged artfully on the towel rods. We never used them. We used our "B Team," working towels for showering and drying our hands. Whenever we left the house, the working towels went into the dryer, and the show towels were always there, ready to wow our buyers with a feeling of, "This isn't a bathroom; this is a spa!"

Can You Sell a Friend's House?

I had someone email me yesterday wondering if my eBook, I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market, could help them sell their friends' house. That's a tough question. If you've been following along with me, you know that one of my main focuses is emotional detachment. I'll say it again, "It's relatively easy to sell a house. It's almost impossible to sell your home."

If you are trying to sell a house for a friend, you probably don't have that emotional attachment to the property that the friends might have. I suppose that it would really depend on the friends' state of mind: are they sad about having to sell? Do they wish they didn't have to sell? Would they rather hold onto the house? I don't know the answers to those questions, and the questioner didn't give me the back story.

I told the truth as I see it: I cannot guarantee that using my action plan can help you sell your house or your friends' house. I can only guarantee that I CAN Sell This House is a progression--from emotional detachment, through depersonalizing, to staging, listing and maintaining the stage through closing--that, if followed with intention, gives you the best possible chance for the house to attract its new owner.

Again, I must stress that in this down market, you are best served by hiring an expert Realtor who can advise you through all stages of the game. So--can my book help you sell your friends' house? I don't know. I do know that, if you are sincere in wanting to sell your own house and are ready to cut emotional ties to the house, your mantra must be I CAN Sell This House.

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

I've been thinking about my Friday post--about my friend and his analogy about I CAN Sell This House. A rather trite proverb came to mind, but maybe it's only trite because we don't stop and think about what it really means: He can't see the forest for the trees.

In the context of selling a house, I think the "forest" is the real estate market and potential buyers as a whole. The "trees" are your ties to your house, both emotional and physical. There's the tree of "kids' measuring stick" on the back of the kitchen door. Another tree might be the energy you put into building that swing-set, or maybe it's your collection of baseball cards displayed in the den. There's a tree of anxiety about selling--can you find a buyer and if you really want to sell in the first place. Yup, trying to sell your home is impossible because of all the trees in the way.

When you get your head and your heart in the right place--when you've emotionally distanced yourself and can objectively assess the house (not your home)--your job is to blaze a trail through the forest to lead your new buyers to their new home. Work with your Realtor to decide on what that trail should look like: will it include Internet ads (it should)? Will it include an Open House (maybe)? Will it include a spiritual component in which you ask the house to call the new buyers to it (that depends upon your comfort level)?

Whatever your trail ends up looking like, make sure that every blaze is added with the intention of bringing your buyers to their new home. It's a subtle shift, but it is a shift. Rather than focusing on actions to sell, focus on actions to attract.

With Each Page I Read, I Backed Up a Step

I had a really interesting conversation with a friend and Realtor yesterday. I had given him a copy of my book, I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market. He had some really good feedback for me, including a wonderful metaphor that I hadn't even considered when I wrote it.

He said that he felt like he started reading standing inside a home, and with every page he read, he stepped back farther and farther until he was at the end of the driveway looking at the house. I was thrilled with his assessment, because that's what any seller needs today. As a seller, you need to cut all those emotional ties to your home so you can concentrate on just selling a house. I've said it before, but it bears repeating, "It's easy to sell a house. It's almost impossible to sell your home."

So, many thanks to Steve Jourdain for his insight. If you need to sell your house and either haven't figured out how to emotionally detach or don't realize that it's necessary, maybe my book can help you, too. Please take a look. Just so you can make sure, I offer a free sample with no strings attached.

Vote, America

Taking a break from the norm to encourage everyone to vote today. It has been said a thousand times before, at least, but this truly could be the most important election in our country's history. I voted early, and I am very excited about what is happening. Whether energized to vote Obama or McCain, everyone is energized, and everyone is seeking positive change. We may differ on how we think that should be achieved, but hopefully our intention behind our vote, whether blue or red, is an intention for positive change and unity in our country. Go America!

Using Social Networking to Get Buyers

I have just had a revelation! I've recently begun using facebook, Twitter and Squidoo to get the word out about my ebook and some of my other websites, but you can just as easily use these powerful tools to spread the word that you are selling a house! Seriously.

Make a facebook page about your house. Put links to your MLS listing and to your Realtor's page. Spread the word that way.

Join Twitter and throw out a tweet: "Selling my house in (city, state). See (MLS page)" With Twitter, though, make sure that you have enough people following you to make it worthwhile. Join, find people to follow by having Twitter search your address books. From there, find out who is following those folks, and follow them, too. It has been my experience that you can build up quite a number of followers within a couple of days. Expect about a 25% return on followers. That is, if you follow 200 people, expect about 50 of them to follow you. Once the word gets out, it spreads fast. Tweet at least a few times about the house. "Staged my house to sell. Visit (MLS page)" or "Had two showings today. Visit (MLS page)."

Join Squidoo and make a lens about your house. See if there is a real estate group on Squidoo and join it. Send an email to all of your friends letting them know you have a lens up on Squidoo. Tweet about your lens on Twitter.

Bookmark your Squidoo page on Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Digg--all of that. The more you get that URL out there, the more people will find it. And the more people who find it, the more potential buyers you have.

And this just scratches the surface. I'm telling you, I never dreamed that social networking could be so powerful. But just go for it. Remember, you are doing at least one thing every day with the express intention that it help you sell that house. Might as well make it the most powerful thing ever.

One caveat--and it's a big one: make sure you are also giving on these sites. If you approach all of these methods with a grasping, grabby manner, people will be able to tell. Make sure you give at least as much as you get--the Internet should enrich everyones' lives, not just yours.

Using Your Intuition to Make Sound Selling Decisions

Type in "real estate" into any search engine, and you will immediately be overwhelmed with an avalanche of information. Some good, some not-so-good, and lots that conflict with each other. What's a person to do? You want/need to sell your house, you're willing to put in the work necessary to be successful, you've distanced yourself emotionally and are acting with intention. You've found a Realtor with whom you'll be able to work.

Sometimes, though, a question will come up or a situation will arise that you will need to figure out all by yourself. Your Realtor can advise you, of course, but ultimately, the decision is yours. Any decision you make when it comes to selling a house, especially in this market, is an important one. How do you know if you're making the right decision?

You can pray about it, meditate on it, get advice from friends--all great ideas, so certainly do what is right for you and what fits into your belief system. I will also suggest that you tune in to your intuition and see what it is telling you to do. After all, most researchers agree that we're only using about 10-15% of our brain power at any time. I believe that intuition is how we tap into the other 85-90%: sort of a bridge to the rest of our intelligence.

Not sure how to do that? There are plenty of great books out there that can help you. If you are a fairly intuitive person anyway who can easily get in touch with your inner voice, you might not need any help at all.

For those of us who might need a bit of help though, there are intuition coaches in the world who are extremely skilled at helping you reach your own inner voice and be able to make even crucial decisions with a calm sense of rightness. My friend, Jennifer Halls, is one of those people. You can look into her services at her website, You know.

Nuts and Bolts Resources

I've told you to find a Realtor and then sent you forth without any really hard information on Realtors. That was mean. I apologize. I am not the All-Knowing Realtor Yellow Pages, but I do know and have worked with some very skilled Realtors. I will now tell you about them.

Paula Harpole—our Realtor, serving the greater Orlando area. Paula is the best. She is professional, knowledgeable and a tough negotiator. She is also empathetic, compassionate and nurturing. This is a great combination. If you are selling in the greater Orlando area, or planning on moving to the area, contact her. Paula is also a certified Relocation Specialist as well as a Fine Home Specialist. She knows her stuff, and I am so fortunate to have been able to work with her and call her my friend!

Mary Lou Dingman—Mary Lou is your lady if you are moving to the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina. With 20 years as a resident and 8 years as a Realtor, Mary Lou brings not only her knowledge of the area but her love for the area to the table. With extensive experience in new construction, a finger on the pulse of the market in general, and a manner that will instantly put you at ease, Mary Lou is a force to be reckoned with in The Triangle.

KC Covington—Your go-to guy for real estate in the Charlotte area. Licensed in both North and South Carolina, KC is a native Charlottean and knows the area inside and out. With over 23 years of experience and as one of the top-performing Realtors in the greater Charlotte area, KC mixes intimate and encyclopedic knowledge of the market in the Carolinas with southern charm that just can’t be beat.

If you are selling in the Charlotte/Rock Hill area, the Triangle of North Carolina or in Central Florida, do look them up. They are experts. If you are selling a house anywhere in the Southeast, give one of them a call. They all have extensive networks, and even if you are looking outside their specific areas, they will be able to recommend a wonderful Realtor.

What Role Does Luck Play?

If you believe that keeping a rabbit's foot, a silver dollar or a special shell in your pocket is going to magically draw your buyer family to you, maybe now is not the time for you to sell. If, however, you believe that you make your own luck, then I say to you, "The more focused the intention behind the work you do to sell the house, the better your luck will be."

I'm sure you've seen someone on a talk show explaining that they "Just got lucky." Well, unless they are talking about winning the Power Ball Lottery, they didn't "just" get lucky. Whatever they have achieved in their lives--either personally or in business--that got them on the talk show in the first place was the result of a concentration of focus and effort on achieving a goal.

When you decide to sell your house, you will 1)disengage emotionally from the house, 2)act with intent to prepare it for listing, 3)stage it effectively, 4)find a great Realtor and work with them to market effectively 5)keep the house show ready at all times, and 6)do at least one thing every day with the express intention of selling the house. Your buyer will find you, and you will be at the closing table before you know it. You and your Realtor know how much work you've put in to realize this sale. If your friends want to call you "lucky," let 'em!

Should You Hire a Professional Stager?

You've made peace with the idea of selling the house. You're even a little excited about it, because you know it's the right thing to do. It's also the start of a new chapter in your life. Whether or not you are still living in the house you are selling, you will need to stage it to sell. Statistics and sales figures show that furnished houses sell more quickly and for closer to the asking price than do vacant houses. If you want to sell quickly and profitably, I suggest you stage.

While home staging is not difficult, it does require you to objectively decide whether you can stage your house or not. If you think your house already looks awesome, hire a stager. If you are too emotionally tied to the "stuff" in your house to be able to make decisions about editing, hire a stager. If your personality is splashed all over the walls, hire a stager. If you are a hoarder (or just a pack rat), hire a stager.

Staging the house will require you to edit furniture pieces and decor items to suggest a single purpose for each room. When we live in a house, most rooms are multi-purpose. In the kitchen in our home, we cook, pay bills, watch TV, do homework and art projects and leave notes for each other on the fridge. In the staged kitchen in the house you are trying to sell, you cook (neatly). If there's a breakfast bar or a table in a nook, you eat there, too. But that's it.

If you are the kind of person who loves a challenge--a person who can approach staging objectively and who has an eye for minimal but inviting design, then go for it. You might visit my Squidoo lens Top Seven Home Staging Mistakes for some ideas to get you started.

Do You Really Need a Realtor?

Many people want to go it alone and try and sell their house without a Realtor. If they can sell quickly, they'll save a 3% commission. Let's say that they can sell their house in four months, with a mortgage payment of $1200/month for $150,000. The seller saves $4500 in commission to their Realtor, but while they saved $4500, they also spent $4800 in mortgage payments. Not using a Realtor cost them $300!

I'm not saying that it is impossible to sell without a Realtor. I am saying that having a full-time professional on your team who has a vested interest in helping you sell quickly can be a life saver. They can help you focus your energies. When you're staging, if you're wondering if it's worth it to buy new valances to put over the windows in the guest bedroom or to put down self-stick vinyl tiles in the kitchen, your Realtor can let you know if it's worth your time, money and attention to do those things. They know because, if you've chosen a good Realtor with years of experience and an intimate knowledge of the market in which you're selling, they've seen what works and what doesn't.

A good Realtor will not only list your house on the MLS, but they will make professional flyers, make sure you have an info-tube and a professional sign, and they will work with you to market the house in as many creative and effective ways as possible. You and your Realtor are partners on Team Sell This House. You two will be the Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the real estate world.

In a sellers' market, go for it. You will probably be able to sell so quickly that you won't have to factor in the cost of your mortgage payments. In this down market though, it is a real concern. It is best to have a professional on your side, working for you and with you to help you sell that house.

Who Lives Here?

The way you approach staging a house is very different from the way you approach decorating a house. And both are very different from the way model homes are staged. You decorate your house by choosing a color scheme that you like and then filling the rooms with furniture and rugs and pillows and lighting and art and knick-knacks that all speak to who and what you are all about. You decorate a house to make it a home and to live in it. The designers who stage model houses know that at least two groups of folks will wander through--those who are interested in buying, and those who are looking for decorating ideas. The designers stage accordingly, using furniture and props to suggest uses for each space, but also going overboard with themed rooms. You've seen them--the "gentleman's room" with the dark paneling, burgundy and hunter green wallpaper, hunting prints on the wall and a bagpipe on the coffee table; the "media room" complete with popcorn popper on wheels and a Coke machine and lined with framed movie posters; the "football playing kid" room with football shaped pillows, astroturf on the floor and a comforter cover that's green and white to look like a field. It can all be overwhelming. While folks looking for ideas might have a grand time, folks looking to buy can get distracted by all the hoo-ha going on.

When you stage your house to sell, you want people to be able to see the house and all its potential, not the stuff in the house, and certainly not your personal stuff or taste. Serious buyers are looking to project their lives on the stage of your house. Help them do that by suggesting uses for each space with just a couple of key pieces and keeping visual cues to a minimum--don't clutter everything up. Denote "bedroom" with a bed, one nightstand (or two, if it's the master bedroom or a guest suite) and a chest of drawers/dresser with a mirror. A couple of lamps, a couple of non-descript but pleasing prints on the wall, a couple of simple props--a book on a nightstand, a mirrored tray, a vase of flowers. And that's it. It's not a lot, but you're not staging to live in the house. You're staging to sell the house. All that other stuff that's usually in the bedroom--ironing board, computer, dog bed, big storage chest, basket of videos, television--all need to go. The stage says, "This room is for sleeping. Period."

Take yourself and your personality out of the house, and your buyers will say, "Who lives here? There's no way anyone lives here--it's too neat and clean!" I know--it happened with our sale. I even asked our buyer what made our house stand out, and she said that it "felt good" in the house and that she and her husband couldn't believe that anyone lived there!

The Power of Scent

So many home staging and house selling tip sites and books will tell you, "Bake a pie. Bake some cookies. Bake some bread. The smell will drive people wild and make them whip out their checkbooks on the spot." I admit it, it is possible that the majority of buyers out there might like to smell pie upon entering a house. But I submit, friends, that we are trying to reach the broadest range of folks possible. Statistics show that less than 1% of sales come from Open Houses, so most sales come from individual showings. In a perfect world, we would have prior notice of showings, but in today's world of tons-of-houses-for-sale, we're lucky to get a phone call a half hour before a Realtor shows up with a potential buyer in tow. Hardly time to throw the laundry into the washer and turn on all the lights before you have to skedaddle, let alone bake a pie.

Well, okay, how about candles? Unattended candles, hmmmm. I suppose you could light them and then blow them out right before you leave, but then the house would smell like wax. You could use some of those plug-in thingies or one of those remote spray jobbies, but who knows how many people really want to walk into a house that smells like a Mai Tai or a laudromat?

So, what's a seller to do? What worked well for me was a combination of air sanitizer in a neutral scent with a fabric refresher, again, in a neutral scent. I wanted the house to present as blank a canvas as possible--for all the senses. I wanted the potential buyers to be able to project their lives onto the stage of the house, and that included their being able to decide what they wanted to bake, not being forced to think "If I live here, I must bake bread and drink umbrella drinks." Maybe an extreme view, but, again--I wanted to appeal to the broadest market possible with potential buyers being greeted by a non-specific neutral, clean smell.